Vanderbilt Men's Basketball SEC Schedule Released

The entirety of Vanderbilt’s conference-play schedule is now public and finalized, per a Wednesday release.

It’s Vanderbilt’s second SEC slate in head coach Mark Byington’s tenure. Byington looks to build on a season in which Vanderbilt battled through a historically difficult SEC slate and found a way into the NCAA Tournament as a 10 seed. They’ll now look to build on that with 18 opportunities for rèsumè boosters in conference play this season.

Here’s the Commodores’ schedule:

Jan. 3 - at South Carolina

Jan. 6/7 - vs Alabama

Jan. 10 - vs LSU

Jan. 13/14 - at Texas

Jan. 17 - vs Florida

Jan. 20/21 - at Arkansas

Jan. 24 - at Mississippi State

Jan. 27/28 - vs Kentucky

Jan. 31 - at Ole Miss

Feb. 7 - vs Oklahoma

Feb. 10/11 - at Auburn

Feb. 14 - vs Texas A&M

Feb. 17/18 - at Missouri

Feb. 21 - vs Tennessee

Feb. 24/25 - vs Georgia

Feb. 28 - at Kentucky

March 3/4 vs Ole Miss

March 7 at Tennessee

Vanderbilt is looking to put together its first SEC season above .500 since it went 11-7 in league play in 2022-23. The Commodores missed the tournament that season, but made it for the first time since 2016-17 in Byington’s first season.

Last year, Vanderbilt finished league play 8-10 while facing Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri twice each. The Commodores finished with 20 total wins, but ended the season on a four-game losing streak that included their NCAA Tournament loss to Saint Mary’s.

Vanderbilt brings in a roster with just three returning scholarship players in Tyler Tanner, Devin McGlockton and Tyler Nickel. All three of which are expected to have significant roles on a team that possesses an eight-man transfer class headlined by TCU point guard Frankie Collins, North Carolina big man Jalen Washington, Washington wing Tyler Harris, Oklahoma guard Duke Miles and NC State guard Mike James–who hasn’t played since his days at Louisville.

Byington also added Jacksonville State transfer Mason Nicholson, Cornell transfer AK Okereke and Eastern Kentucky transfer George Kimble.

“The priority this recruiting season was to gain some more length, size,” Vanderbilt assistant coach Xavier Joyner told Vandy on SI over the summer. “We knew going into last year we were maybe the smallest team in the SEC regarding length, size so we wanted to upgrade that, which we did.”

Vanderbilt lost three rotational pieces to the transfer portal this offseason, including leading scorer Jason Edwards. The Commodores lost point guards AJ Hoggard and Grant Huffman to graduation as well as versatile wing Chris Mañon. Mañon is now on a two-way contract with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Now, Vanderbilt looks to replace that group and increase its production throughout a difficult league schedule.

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